Sports of The Times; When Time Is Right To Leave Court Behind

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

Published: November 14, 2004

EARLY last week, Jayson Williams, the former St. John's and N.B.A. star, had a brief workout for the Portland Trail Blazers at John Jay College in Manhattan.

The Trail Blazers were in the area to play the Nets, and after a morning shoot-around Tuesday, Williams, the former Nets All-Star, worked out in front of John Nash, Portland's general manager; Maurice Cheeks, the coach; and the assistants Tim Grgurich and Jim Lynam. This was a quiet session: no members of the news media, just a couple of athletic administration personnel from John Jay, the Portland officials and a video technician who taped the session.

''He will be able to help a lot of N.B.A. teams as a backup,'' Nash, a former Nets general manager, said Friday from Portland. ''With his age and experience, he could be a viable presence.''

As soon as I heard that the 36-year-old Williams was pursuing a second chance at an N.B.A. career, I had a hundred mixed emotions and recollections. There was the Jayson Williams at St. John's, affable, cooperative and humorous. There was the N.B.A. Jayson Williams, who made himself into an All-Star player before injuries stopped his career in 1999. There was the generous Jayson Williams, who took care of his sister's children after she died.

Then there was the Jayson Williams who emerged during a three-month manslaughter trial in New Jersey: heavy drinker, chronically reckless and cruel. The prosecution even sought to introduce evidence that Williams had shot and killed his dog in anger over losing a bet.

''Teams will have to weigh the risk-reward factor,'' Nash said. ''Usually in our league, decisions are basketball-slash-financial. This will be basketball-slash-public relations.

''In our case, I know Jayson Williams and I know he has a good heart. He does a lot of good things without needing to beat his chest. But Jayson was also irreverent, he thought he was invincible and he had a history, even before I got to New Jersey, of being a little reckless.''

In April, a jury acquitted Williams of aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault and illegal possession of a weapon in the shooting of a chauffeur at his mansion, but convicted him of trying to cover up the man's death as a suicide. The jury could not reach a verdict on the second-most serious charge, reckless manslaughter.

Three weeks later, prosecutors said they would retry Williams on the reckless manslaughter charge. The trial could begin in January.

If he is acquitted, the N.B.A. doors should be open. But I hope Williams finds some new doors to walk through. I'd like to see him move on with his life, flush basketball out of his system.

This is less a moral issue than a practical one, because of the adverse effects the bizarre world of professional sports can have on certain personalities.

The N.B.A. is an Alice in Wonderland culture that isn't what it appears to be: it assumes the appearance of fun and games but is hard and demanding work. The convergence of money, celebrity and entitlement can create monsters, and it clearly had a deleterious effect on Williams.

Anyone who gives Williams a job will be lambasted, although Joe Dumars, the Detroit Pistons' president for basketball operations and one of the classiest individuals in sports, told me on Friday that he leaned toward Williams's getting a second chance. He said he felt that someone might give him one.

''I think sports has always been the one place where you could count on second chances,'' Dumars said. ''I think if there's a team out there that thinks Jayson can help them, that they would sign him.''

In any event, Williams's quest to get back into the N.B.A. is not an easy or pleasant subject to tackle, especially when the N.B.A. has a so-called image problem. And I'm sure that if some team signs Williams, the signing will be tied to the win-at-all-costs nature of the N.B.A.

There is a good chance Williams will not see a prison cell. The four counts on which he was convicted -- witness tampering, evidence tampering, hindering apprehension and fabricating evidence -- are relatively minor, and he doesn't have a criminal record.

With good reason, most casual observers of sports will not know or care about all of Williams's good deeds.

Accident or not, he killed a man. And if Williams gets another chance to play, he will be seen as another pampered athlete allowed to skate because he can help a team win.

This is why Jayson Williams should move on, for his own good. Is this fair? No. But it's also not fair that the chauffeur, Costas Christofi, lost his life.

If two workouts are any indication -- he worked out for the Cleveland Cavaliers last month as well -- Williams is fully recovered from the leg injuries that forced him to halt his career. He has a supportive family and a loyal wife, Tanya, who delivered their second child near the close of the trial.

More than any of that, Jayson Williams has the most precious commodities: his life and his freedom. N.B.A. or no, that puts him way ahead of the game.